diff --git a/manifests/home-services/tts-gateway.yaml b/manifests/home-services/tts-gateway.yaml
index 37d5258..07a480f 100644
--- a/manifests/home-services/tts-gateway.yaml
+++ b/manifests/home-services/tts-gateway.yaml
@@ -42,8 +42,10 @@ spec:
               value: "info"
             - name: LOG_FORMAT
               value: "json"
-            - name: TLS_DIR
-              value: /tls
+            # TODO: uncomment to re-enable mTLS - temporarily disabled for
+            # direct grpcurl -plaintext testing from outside the cluster.
+            # - name: TLS_DIR
+            #   value: /tls
           readinessProbe:
             tcpSocket:
               port: 50053